


Siren

by Blue_Blossom90



Category: K-pop, VIXX
Genre: F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 18:12:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4635237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Blossom90/pseuds/Blue_Blossom90





	Siren

Hongbin’s voice was dangerous. You found that out the very first time you laid eyes on him, the very first time you witnessed how his sly smile crept up on his face and his chuckle slithered out. Even from across the room, with a handful of bodies, over the flirting voices, you managed to hear him, to conclude that that man’s voice was poisonous.

It lured women in the way those strange, monstrous fishes from the deepest, darkest trenches of the ocean lured their prey with bright lights before devouring them. The manner in which his chuckle had made gooseflesh spread like wildfire on your arms, the chill that shook your spine, alerted you of the danger.

You decided then and there that you wanted nothing to do with a man like that. Pushing your glasses up, you turned on your heel, convinced that you’d never cross paths with him again.

How wrong you were.

What were the chances, really, that in an orientation/workshop with countless of new-coming students, you and he would end in the same team? Slim to none. Yet life, fate, destiny, or whatever, had always enjoyed complicating your existence.

After showing up late, Hongbin had sauntered over, apologized to the organizers, his gloriously deceiving smile getting him out of a loud, vicious scolding by the Student Senate president. He’d merely been waved aside, ordered to take the spot in the nearest group: yours.

Two hours into the activities, you had become comfortable with the members of your team. Ravi was a fun, laid back guy with a deep bass-like voice. He had a tendency of showcasing his faulty leadership skills in an endearing way. He’d guide the activity and halfway through he’d stop talking, and look up, a slight upward tilt to his head as if he were deep in thought. After a few moments of silence, he would declare that he’d forgotten or that he no longer knew what to do. Hakyeon would laugh, a wonderful, honest crystal laugh, and continue with the activity.

Hakyeon had announced that he would rather be addressed as N in gentle, reassuring tones. You knew he was the student advisor in charge of the group’s activities by the relaxed manner in which he lounged on the soft, green grass while retaining an aura of responsibility. You liked N for his gentleness.

There was Bora, a bubbly girl that overflowed with flowery words, girly laughs, and tender smiles. She’d taken a sisterly liking to you, it seemed, because she declared she would love to braid your glistening long hair if you would allow her to. Bora, in your opinion, was the prettiest girl you had ever seen. Her eyes smiled with friendliness that allowed you to ease into your place in this strange quartet.

So when Hongbin, the young man with the dangerous voice, settled between Ravi and N, you quickly receded into your shell.

Noticing the manner in which your shoulders tensed, your bottom lip trapped between your teeth, and the deliberate action of pushing your glasses to the bridge of your nose, Bora smiled reassuringly, drawing the newcomer’s attention away from you by asking his name.

“Hongbin, Lee Hongbin.”

A whimper caught in your throat from the sound of his voice. It was deep, soft, and dark. Hongbin possessed what you knew to be a siren voice: gentle tones dancing alongside sensual notes, coexisting in a bright blackness. It was dangerous, oh, so dangerous!

You wanted to run away, far, far away. Nothing good ever came from associating with men with siren voices.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey, let me help you with that.”

You jumped at the sudden offer coming high from your left. Taking a step back, you bumped into the strong chest of your personal undesirable number one.

“Whoa, careful,” Hongbin said as he took the large crate from your hands while stabilizing you.

Giving him a curt nod, you ducked out from underneath his arms, escaping. The first two days of this orientation/workshop thing had drained your energy beyond measure. Avoiding the devil in your group was impossible! He always seemed to be nearby.

“Specs! We’re over here!” Ravi waved his arm in the air, emphasizing his length. You smiled at the pet name he’d given you on the first day.

Not many girl’s enjoyed wearing glasses nowadays, he’d said, and yours made him think of you as this wise woman whom he could consult for advice. N had chastised him, claiming that you had not transferred from a community college to a state level university to be his personal advisor.

“Where’s Bean?” Bora asked, looking over your shoulder.

“S-stacking up the crates.”

“Specs, are you still running away from him?”

“This won’t do,” N shook his head, his hands on his hips. “You need to stop being so scared of Hongbin.”

“I’m not scared of him!”

Your three friends looked at you with thinning patience. Heat crawled up your neck, across your cheeks, settling on your ears. A powerful hiccup made you cough, leaving a familiar, lingering pain on your chest.

“Do you need some water?”

The siren’s voice made you squeal. Without thinking you ran, hiding behind N, clutching his white shirt in your fists. He peeked at you over his shoulder, his eyebrows raised.

Hongbin stood confused, his hand outstretched in you direction offering a water bottle. Bora sighed, shaking her head. Ravi took the bottle from him and drank its cool contents.

“Thanks, bro!”

Hongbin smiled, a smile you were sure originated from the center of Hell. “No problem. Would you like some water, Bora? N? Specs?”

You wanted to shout at him that he had no right to call you Specs, that that right was reserved only for your three friends, the ones you trusted, not for the likes of him.

N moved aside suddenly. Falling forward, you put your hands out to break your fall, yelping as your momentum abruptly halted with the help of Ravi and Hongbin’s hands.

Too close! Hongbin was too close! Hiccups ripped through your chest, leaving only pain behind.

“That was dangerous, N!” Hongbin shouted.

N smiled, shrugging his shoulders. “Let’s get ready for tonight’s scavenger hunt.”

“T-there’s a scavenger hunt?” you managed to ask through vicious hiccups.

“Yup,” N said cheerfully. “In the dark.”

“In the dark?”

“And in the woods behind campus.”

A scavenger hunt in the dark woods behind campus. You felt your glasses slide down as your eyes widened.

 

* * *

 

 

The world hated you. You just knew the world hated you. There was no other explanation as to why you’d been paired up with Hongbin besides that one.

 The dark path was too narrow for you to put enough distance between you and Hongbin. There was only one flashlight, and if you strayed too far, Hongbin would be left in complete darkness. You couldn’t leave him in the dark despite how much you disliked him.

The hoot of a nearby owl resonated through the air. Undesirable number one moved closer to you, his hand finding your arm, securing it tightly.

“Ow. Hongbin, that hurts.”

“Sorry!” He relaxed his grip, remaining almost unbearably close.

That was the last word you heard him say for the next thirty minutes of the hunt. You were so busy holding the flashlight, map, deciphering the clues, leading him through the woods that you failed to noticed the absence of his poisonous song.

Without his continuous melody, you slowly lowered your guard, wondering what had made you so nervous around the boy to begin with. In the woods, your confidence soared. You’d grown up in a town small enough to be in a first-name basis with everyone, yet big enough to house acres and acres of woodland.

Your earliest memories were of spending time in the woods with your mother, learning to hone in on the delicate sounds of nature. You could hear the soft shuffle of a bear’s trek fifty feet away, recognize the different calls of the regional and seasonal birds. You had a photographic memory for landscapes; getting lost in the woods was impossible.

Everyone had been so impressed by your natural skill that when you had announced you wished to get an education in literature instead of becoming a ranger the entire town seemed to have been turned upside down. Some tried to discourage you while others cheered you on. What other’s thought didn’t really matter to you anyway. Your mother had not even protested in the slightest when you’d told her.

Now, walking through the smaller, less dense woods of your new university, you found yourself missing the old woods you’d grown up in, as well as forgetting any and every kind of fearful nervousness you’d been carrying with you up until that point.

“Bean, hey, Bean,” you beckoned him over. The next clue had led you a ways off from the path, to a tall tree from which a bag hung out of your short reach. “Can you get that from me? I don’t want to climb up unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Hongbin gave you a funny look then reached over for the bag, guided by the light of the flashlight. Unexpectedly, a startled rabbit darted out the base of the tree, running over Hongbin’s feet. The handsome man gave a deep, sharp cry, leaping away from the creature, effectively knocking the flashlight from your hand.

It crashed against a rock; the little light it had provided disappearing. A naturally wonderful darkness engulfed the both of you.

“______!”

“Bean, calm down, I’m right here.”

You stretched out your arm, searching for him with care. His hand crashed with yours. Frantically, he pulled you to him, settling against the trunk of the large tree. Hongbin hugged you tightly, his heart racing.

“Bean, are you okay?”

You could hear his breathing come in short gasps, his heartrate increasing. He was scared, truly scared. What was he afraid of? The darkness? The woods?

“Bean? Hongbin!” You gave him a little shake. “Listen, focus on the sound of my voice, alright? Your eyes will adjust soon enough. The path is just a few feet away. Take a deep breath, that’s it. Now another. Good. Don’t squeeze me so tightly, I need to breathe too.”

“S-sorry.”

You ran your hands across his chest with care, the feel of the hard muscles underneath making the heat shoot up, warming your neck, cheeks, and ears. Blinking slowly, allowing for your vision to adjust naturally, you found his shoulders and guided your hands down to take his. They were larger than yours with soft palms, gentle fingers, and, oddly enough, calloused fingertips. He gave your hands a squeeze as you helped him walk back towards the path.

“Do you play an instrument?” Initiating conversation was the best thing to do in order to calm those weary of the woods. The sound of another human voice reassured them that they had not been lost to the wilderness.

“Y-yeah. The guitar.”

“Really? That’s cool. How long have you been playing?”

“S-several years…or maybe just a couple… I don’t know.”

You wondered what it had been about his voice that had ever chimed poisonous. It sounded nothing but nervous, almost child-like in the vastness of the nighttime woods.

A night dweller moved somewhere, the sound of its quick feet creating a cacophony in the silence. Hongbin jumped, his movement nearly pulling your arm out of its socket. He moved closer to you, holding your hand and upper arm with a death grip.

“H-Hongbin,” you said through an unexpected smile. “Calm down, it was just a woodland animal.”

“Was it a bear? Could it be a bear? Bears smell fear.”

Biting your lip you swallowed your laughter. “No, it wasn’t a bear. Probably just another rabbit or something. They’re not used to people walking around their home at night.”

“ _I’m_  not used to walking in dark woods either.”

Focusing on the ground before you, you attempted to make out the outline of the path. You could probably make your way out of the woods on your own, but with Hongbin in such an anxious state, wandering around would not be good for him. Besides, you had not yet familiarized yourself with the area.

“Why are you stopping?” Hongbin pressed himself closer to your back when you did not move forward. You could feel his thundering heartbeat on your spine. You’d never felt someone else’s heart in this or any other matter; what an oddly pleasant feeling.

“I’m going to call N.”

“Are we lost? Did we get lost? Oh my god, will bears find us and eat us?”

You couldn’t help it, you laughed. You laughed so much your stomach hurt and tears dripped from the corner of your eyes. Hongbin stood there awkwardly, watching you laugh without understanding why. He probably thought fear had probably overpowered your senses.

Using his body to keep yourself upright, you finally managed to stop laughing long enough to unhook the walkie-talkie N had given you before you set out into the wild. Hongbin jolted at the crackling sound of white noise before N’s voice came through.

“Specs, what’s the matter?”

“We lost our flashlight, N. We’re on the path, but I don’t think we can make it out without a light.”

“Do you remember the area you’re in?”

“We just left the large oak off by Gentle Creek. We couldn’t have gone far, maybe a few meters.”

“Alright, you kids stay put. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Bean, take care of Specs!”

Knowing his pride could be hurt, you kept yourself from laughing. “Let’s sit down. It’ll be about fifteen minutes before he gets here.”

“Aren’t you afraid?” Hongbin asked in his soft voice as he took a seat beside you.

“I’m from a small town surrounded by woods. I feel right at home.”

The moonlight seeping through the thin canopy over your heads allowed him to see the ease in your smile. He rubbed his hands together, having released yours upon taking a seat on the damp earth.

Self-consciousness crept up on you, making your skin tingle uncomfortably as you realized that you were speaking to the siren-voiced man with ease. Nature always made you drunk with ease and confidence. You began to question the sanity of it all.

Being alone in the woods with Hongbin hadn’t been your plan, but you hadn’t minded because you had gotten the chance to explore the delicate woods on campus before the semester officially begun. Now, sitting in silence, you felt slightly guilty for not having sensed his discomfort from the start.

“Hongbin, I’m sorry.”

Your apology took him by surprise. He stopped rubbing his hands, his head listed to the left in puzzlement. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I should have just climbed the tree to get the sack. We wouldn’t have lost the flashlight then and you’d been out of the woods sooner.”

The handsome young man shifted beside you, turning his body so that he could look into your guilty face better. Gnawing your lip, you pushed your glasses up, hoping that some way of making it up to him existed.

“What are you talking about? It would’ve been much more dangerous for you to climb that tree. What if you had fallen and cracked your head? What would I have done then? I didn’t even remember N had given us a walkie-talkie. The woods make me nervous, they always have. There would have been no way for me to think my way out of anything if you had not been here with me. Besides, I should be the one apologizing.”

He gave you no opportunity to interject as he continued on with his nervous tirade. “I’ve been trying really hard figure out what I did wrong, how I hurt your feelings or made you angry. I haven’t come up with the reason as to why yet. I’m really sorry, _____, whatever it was that I did to upset you, I’m really sorry.”

“Hongbin, I—”

“You’re the gentlest girl I’ve ever met and it upsets me that I hurt you in some way. I wanted to apologize earlier, but if I apologized without knowing what I was apologizing for I could’ve made things worse. I’m really sorry, though. I still don’t know what I did wrong, but I won’t do it again if you tell me what it was.”

His voice made you dizzy. Your heart hammered in your chest, your neck, cheeks, and ears burned. There was a tightness in your stomach, sweat on your palms. Even though you were seated, your knees felt weak; if you attempted to stand, you’d just flop back down. Your skin prickled the longer he continued to talk. He wouldn’t let you get a single word in, making his tirade even all the more difficult to bear.

You felt lightheaded, elated, nervous. The raging emotions within you made you desperate. His siren’s voice lured you, bewitched you.

“I’m really, really, really sorry _____.”

“S-stop!” You pressed your hands to his lips, pushing his cascading words back. Your eyes were wide, nearly desperate, your breath came to you in little gasps.

“Y-you didn’t do anything wrong, Hongbin. J-just stop talking.”

His dark eyes glimmered in the moonlight, his fair skin glowed from the silvery light. His straight, coal hair ruffled by the misadventure in the woods. Electricity hummed, originating from your hands where you touched his delicately handsome face, down your arms into your chest. A vicious hiccup rattled your frame.

The more you looked into his eyes, the harder you hiccupped. Soon, the hiccups became so constant, so painful, that Hongbin had to assist you in sitting back down. He pulled a water bottle from the backpack he’d been assigned with, offering it to you as he draped the blanket he’d found tucked underneath the emergency supplies.

By the time you managed to twist to bottle cap off, Hongbin had settled down beside you in silence. Guilt dropped on you like a ton of stone.

You were being unfair to Hongbin. He was nothing if a nice guy, but you had kept him away only because his voice was too much for your sensitive ears to handle. He’d helped out, participated, cleaned up, shared, laughed, experienced, bonded with the rest of your group while you had kept him out for no good reason. You had had no idea that he’d been trying to apologize to you for having done nothing at all. You had had no idea he had been troubled by your rejection.

“I-I’m the one that’s sorry, Hongbin.” You managed to say through angry hiccups. “I w-was just n-nervous around you.”

The unforeseen confession tagged behind the apology made your skin burn hotter. Hongbin blinked his puzzled incredulity before a wide smile spread across his face.

You froze, realizing your mistake a little too late.

Hongbin did not only possess a siren’s voice, he  _was_  a siren. A beautiful, deadly, irrevocably breathtaking siren. His entire being had trapped you, pulled you overboard. There was nothing you could do now as you fell deeper and deeper into his black waters, listening not to his voice, but to the song of his existence.

There was no way out now, not after sinking in so deeply. You couldn’t even see hint of light penetrating the surface of those black waters. To be quite honest, you weren’t too sure you would have even attempted to escape if you had managed to find a way out.

Hongbin said nothing from that moment onwards, did not speak even when N finally arrived. He simply smiled broadly; a smile of triumph. You stuck close to N, pushing your glasses up to the bridge of your nose after every merciless hiccup.

Hongbin walked behind you in silence. Not a single word left his lips, but there was no need; you felt the vibrations of his luring song, your lungs filling with its intoxicating sweetness. You drowned and drowned and drowned. You didn’t pray for salvation; you prayed that you’d never be released, that he would continue to hold you captive with his song.

You hiccupped in elated defeat as you exited the woods, wondering just what melody your siren would utter next.


End file.
